System, Method, and Apparatus for Forming and Filling Pill Compartments

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for forming and filling blister packs is disclosed. The method includes receiving a substantially sheet of material and forming a plurality of compartments in the sheet of material. Next, at least one of the compartments is filled with at least two pills. The at least two pills include a first type of pill and a different second type of pills. The method continues with sealing the compartments and optionally dividing the sheet of material into blister packs.

FIELD

The present invention relates to the field of dispensing medicine and more particularly to an apparatus forming pill cards from sheets of material and filling the compartments of the pill cards with at least two different types of pills.

BACKGROUND

The dispensing of medicine in the form of pills, capsules, gel-caps, and the like is performed in many ways and in many locations including pharmacies, packaging plants, and hospitals. Pharmacies or drug stores employ Pharmacists to fill prescriptions with the prescribed amount of a prescribed medicine or dose.

In a manual operation, the Pharmacist typically fills the prescription from a bulk package of medicine into a delivery package sized for the consumer. Although Pharmacists are very careful to dispense the correct quantity of the correct medicine, ever too often, the wrong quantity is dispensed, or worse yet, the wrong medicine is dispensed.

Lately, medicine is often delivered to the consumer in a package that is a card having a plurality of sealed compartments. Each compartment has as many pills as needed for a particular dose (e.g., one pill in the first compartment for morning, three pills in the second compartment for mid-day, and two pills in the third compartment for evening consumption). In the manual process, after counting the prescribed amount of medicine, the Pharmacist directs the pills into the compartments, then places a cover with a label on the card indicating what medicine is stored inside and information related to the medicine. The manual transfer of pills into each compartment creates another opportunity for one or more pills to be lost, or placed into the wrong compartment, thereby not providing the proper amount to the patient at the right time.

These cards are often referred to as “blister packs” or “bubble packs” and are often pre-formed having a specific two-dimensional array of compartments. Each compartment resembles cups, balloons, or blisters and each “blister” is filled with one or more pills that are typically to be taken at the same time. This form of packaging is known as “dose packs,” “bingo cards,” and “punch cards.” Often, cold medicine is supplied to consumers on such a card with a single dose in each compartment and the card (blister pack) is packaged in a simple box with labels and advertising on the outside. When the compartments are formed as balloons, it is anticipated that an individual compartment (e.g. balloon) is removable and remains sealed until the balloon is burst.

Although a huge benefit to the consumer, filling the blister pack with a prescription involves the Pharmacist sitting down and laboriously dispensing the doses by hand into the individual blisters of the pack, then sealing the back. Furthermore, for prescriptions in which the dosage varies by day, extra attention to detail is required because each blister may have different quantities of pills or pills of a different strength or a combination of such, again feeding into the probability of error.

Presently, automation equipment is available for automatically filling prescriptions from a plurality of pill storage bins (or canisters). Each storage bin is filled with a supply of a given medicine in pill, capsule or gel-cap form. The storage bin has an electro-mechanical dispensing control which is controlled by a machine control that has, for example, a user interface for the Pharmacist to enter the medicine name, strength, and quantity, thereby initiating the dispensing of that quantity of pills. The pills are then directed into the compartments of a prefabricated blister pack.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,051 B1 to Preiss, issued Nov. 20, 2001; which is hereby incorporated by reference describes a device for dispatching singular items from a single supply station into prefabricated product packs (blister packs). Each compartment of the prefabricated blister packs is filled with a single medication. This device is limited to dispensing a single type of pill into a single type of prefabricated blister pack.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,259 B2 to Stevens, et al, issued Oct. 19, 2004; hereby incorporated by reference, also describes a tablet dispenser that dispenses tablets from multiple reservoirs into blister packs. This device is limited to dispensing only into prefabricated blister packs.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,925,774 B2 to Peterson, issued Aug. 9, 2005 is hereby incorporated by reference. It describes a machine a machine for filling prefabricated blister package cavities.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,006,894 to de la Huerge, issued Feb. 28, 2006 is hereby incorporated by reference. This patent describes a device for filling a medication cassette which is then provided to a patient in a hospital setting. The disclosed device does not fill preformed blister packs from a plurality of canisters.

Prefabricated blister packs perform the intended function but create issues for pharmacies, etc., related to the cost of procurement, stocking of a range of needed configurations, reordering, etc. A typical pharmacy may need tens to hundreds of different blister packs having different compartment configurations and sizes. It is therefore advantageous to create blister packs of the needed configuration when that configuration is needed.

For mass-production of filled blister packs, blister packs are created by a form-fill-seal process at a pharmaceutical company. In the form-fill-seal process, the blister pack is created from rolls of flat sheets or film, the then blisters are filled with the pharmaceutical product, and sealed on the same machine. This equipment is called a blisterline. Such in-line formation of blister packs has been introduced for mass production of filled blister packs. Such machines fill each compartment with one pill (all pills in one blister pack are homogeneous). An example of such a machine is manufactured by the Uhlmann-Group. These machines are typically set up to fabricate or form a single configuration of blister pack and fill each compartment with the same type of medication, such as the blister packs often containing cold medicine. This is useful for mass production of blister packs in which each compartment contains one pill of a given type, but there are many uses for blister packs in which each compartment contains multiple pills, some of which are of different medications. For example, a pharmacy produces a dosage pack for a patient of a nursing home in which there are 21 compartments having seven days of medications, three compartments for each day, labeled Monday-AM, Monday-Noon, Monday-Bedtime, Tuesday-Am, etc. This patient needs blood pressure medicine in the morning, afternoon, and night; antidepressant in the morning; pain medication in the afternoon; and a sleeping pill at night. The prior systems do not create such a blister pack and do not have the ability to fill each compartment with multiple, different medications.

What is needed is a system that will fabricate a blister pack and fill each compartment with multiple medications (e.g. pills).

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, a method of forming and filling blister packs is disclosed including receiving a substantially sheet of material and forming a plurality of compartments in the sheet of material. Next, at least one of the compartments is filled with at least two pills. The at least two pills include a first type of pill and a different second type of pills. The method continues with sealing the compartments and optionally dividing the sheet of material into blister packs.

In another embodiment, a form and fill machine is disclosed including a subsystem for forming a plurality of compartments in a sheet of material and a subsystem for filling at least one of the compartments with a plurality of pills. The plurality of pills includes at least two types of pills. Also included is a subsystem for sealing the compartments and a subsystem for dividing the sheet of materials into individual blister packs.

In another embodiment, a form and fill machine is disclosed including a mold for forming a plurality of compartments in a sheet of material. The mold has openings, whereas the sheet of material is positioned over the mold and a vacuum is drawn from under the mold, thereby forming the compartments in the sheet of material at the openings. The machine includes a plurality of canisters of which at least a first canister of the canisters contains a first pill type and at least a second canister of the canisters contains a second pill type, wherein the first pill type is different from the second pill type. A drive mechanism selectively positions the first canister of the plurality of canisters over a selected compartment of the compartments and drops a selected quantity of the first type of pill into the selected compartment, and selectively positions the second canister of the plurality of canisters over the selected compartment and drops a selected quantity of the second type of pill into the selected compartment. A sealing mechanism then seals the compartments after the compartments is filled and a cutting mechanism divides the sheet of material with compartments into blister packs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention can be best understood by those having ordinary skill in the art by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a portion of the system that forms the compartments by vacuum.

FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of a portion of the system that forms the compartments by stamping.

FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of a portion of the system that fills the compartments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a perspective view of a portion of the system that separates sections of the resulting cards.

FIG. 5 illustrates a perspective view of a portion of the system that seals the resulting cards.

FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of a sealed card from the compartment side.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the presently preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Throughout the following detailed description, the same reference numerals refer to the same elements in all figures.

Throughout the description, the word “pill” is used generically to refer to any solid or solid with powder or liquid filling that is intended for oral or suppository delivery to a patient. For the purpose of this application, the word pill is used to represent anything that can be dispensed by the device present system and method and there is no limitation placed upon that which is dispensed. For example, the term pill is used to represent tablets, capsules, caplets and gel-caps, as well as anything that can be dispensed such as coated candy (e.g., placebos). The present invention works well with most any solid object and can be scaled to work for much larger objects as well. Throughout the description the forms of packaging are referred to as blister packs. For the purpose of this application, the word blister pack refers to a class of packaging that has multiple compartments, wherein each compartment optionally (it is possible for some compartments to be empty) stores a dose of one or more pills, either the same pills or different pills.

Other names for blister packs are, for example, dose packs, bingo cards and punch cards. The individual blisters of the blister pack can be arranged in any fashion, such as a linear series of blisters and a matrix of blisters and may be evenly spaced or not. Often, blister packs are sealed by a thin sheet that adheres to their open side, allowing one blister at a time to be pierced to gain access to the pills within that blister.

Throughout this description, the term canister refers to a dispenser or canister for a dispensing medicine. In some embodiments, the canister has a storage compartment for the pills and a mechanism for dispensing an accurate count of the pills. Canisters are sometimes referred to in the industry as cassettes or other names. The description shows typical dispensing mechanisms as an example as well as dual-reservoir canisters and it is anticipated dispensing systems be of any size, shape, configuration, etc.

Referring to FIG. 1, a perspective view of a portion of the system that forms the compartments 20 by vacuum is shown. The disclosed system accepts a sheet of material 10 such as plastic, aluminum, composite materials, etc., and forms a plurality of compartments 20 in the material sized appropriately to hold a plurality of medications. Although there are many ways to form such compartments 20 in a sheet of material 10, the exemplary subsystem shown in FIG. 1 uses a vacuum that is distributed among a plurality of cavities in a mold 22 by a manifold 26. The vacuum is produced as known in the industry by a suction device (not shown) and the manifold 26 is in fluid communication with the suction device through a conduit 27. It is anticipated that either the suction device is controlled or a valve is controlled to apply the vacuum at the time the sheet of material 10 is positioned to form the compartments 20, then the vacuum abates, allowing the sheet of material 10 with compartments 20 to progress to the filling area (see FIG. 3).

It is anticipated that there be mechanisms to progress the sheet of material 10 through the various stations to form, fill, pack, and seal the blister pack, including lifting the compartments out of the mold 22, as known in the industry and not shown for brevity and clarity reasons.

Cavities 20 that are already formed are shown progressing to the next station.

In some embodiments, to facilitate proper forming of the compartments 20, the mold 22 is heated by a heater 24, such as an induction heater 24 or other heater 24 as known in the industry. In this, as the sheet of material 10 passes over the mold 22, the section of material 10 situated over the mold 22 is heated such that, when vacuum is applied through the conduit 27 and manifold 26, the heated area of the sheet of material 10 readily forms into the appropriate compartments 20.

Although shown as a vacuum forming operation, it is equally anticipated that the compartments be formed through a blow-molding operation in which air pressure from the top replaces vacuum from the bottom.

Referring to FIG. 2, a perspective view of a portion of the system that forms the compartments 20 by stamping is shown. The disclosed system accepts a sheet of material 10 such as plastic, aluminum, composite materials, etc., and forms a plurality of compartments 20 in the material sized appropriately to hold a plurality of medications. In the exemplary subsystem shown in FIG. 2, a stamp 40 is used to form the compartment by pushing protrusions 42 down onto the sheet of material 20 and into cavities in the mold 22. After the compartments 20 are formed, the stamp 40 is lifted, allowing the sheet of material 10 with compartments 20 to progress to the filling area (see FIG. 3).

It is anticipated that there be mechanisms to progress the sheet of material 10 through the various stations to form, fill, pack, and seal the blister pack, including lifting the compartments out of the mold 22, as known in the industry and not shown for brevity and clarity reasons.

In some embodiments, to facilitate proper forming of the compartments 20, the mold 22 is heated by a heater 24, such as an induction heater 24 or other heater 24 as known in the industry. In this, as the sheet of material 10 passes over the mold 22, the section of material 10 situated over the mold 22 is heated such that, when the stamp 40 is moved over the mold 22 and the protrusions 42 press on the sheet of material 10, the heated area of the sheet of material 10 readily forms into the appropriate compartments 20. In some embodiments, the stamp 40 and protrusions 42 are heated.

Cavities 20 that are already formed are shown progressing to the next station.

Referring to FIG. 3, a perspective view of a portion of the system that fills the compartments 20 is shown. After forming of the compartments 20, the sheet of material 10 includes multiple sub-sheets 10A/10B/10C, each to become separate blister packs after cutting. The sub-sheet 10A is moved to a location beneath filling canisters 1000/1002. Although two filling canisters 1000/1002 are shown, any number of filling canisters 1000/1002 is anticipated. Although filling canisters 1000/1002 are shown having dual reservoirs, any known canister/reservoir configuration is anticipated as known in the art. The filling canisters 1000/1002 typically are under processor control to drop one or more pills at a specific location called a target location.

In some embodiments, a tray or support 1022 is located beneath the sheet of material 10 with compartments 20 to provide support and the filling canisters 1000/1002 move in the X and Y directions to facilitate filling one or more of the compartments 20. In this, the sheet of material 10 and compartments 20 remain stationary while one or multiple of the filling canister(s) 1000/1002 move in the X and/or Y direction to change the target location to the desired compartment 20, then the required number of pills 1001/1003 are dropped into the compartment 20 beneath the target location, then the filling canister(s) 1000/1002 is/are moved in the X and/or Y direction to the next compartment 20, etc.

In some embodiments, the tray or support 1022 is located beneath the sheet of material 10 with compartments 20 to provide support and the tray 1022 moves in the X and/or Y direction while the filling canisters 1000/1002 remain in the same position. This facilitates filling one or more of the compartments 20 with a plurality of pills. In this, the filling canister(s) 1000/1002 remain stationary while the tray 1022 and, hence, the sheet of material 10 and compartments 20 move in the X and/or Y direction to change which compartment 20 is beneath the target location, then the required number of pills 1001/1003 are dropped into the compartment 20 beneath the target location, then the sheet of material 10 and compartments 20 is/are moved in the X and/or Y direction to the next compartment 20, etc.

In some embodiments, both the filling canisters 1000/1002 and the tray 1022 move in the X and/or Y direction.

As an example of filling each compartment with two different pills 1001/1003, the compartments 1020 in the later sub-sheets 10B/10C are shown containing two different pills, a first pill 1001 from the canister 1000 and a second pill 1003 from the canister 1002.

Referring to FIG. 4, a perspective view of a portion of the system that separates sections of the resulting cards is shown. In this a mechanical cutter 1040 with blade 1042 is shown. After the sub-sheets 10A/10B/10B are filled, the sub sheets 10A/10B/10C are separated by any way known, the cutter 1040 being shown, but there is no limitation on the type of cutting and many other mechanisms for cutting are anticipated including, but not limited to, laser cutting, hot-wire cutting, cutting wheels, scissor-like mechanisms, etc. In a similar manner, it is fully anticipated that the sub sheets 10A/10B/10C be further divided, either by cutting or perforations, along a same or different axis, to later facilitate separation of a subset of compartments or even down to individual compartments.

Referring to FIG. 5, a perspective view of a portion of the system that covers/seals the resulting card(s) is shown. In this example of sealing, a pre-printed cover/label 1100 is shown being rolled onto the back of the filled blister pack 10 b by a roller 1004 supported by trusses 1102. Note that the previous blister pack 10C has already been covered/sealed while the subsequent blister pack 10A has not yet been covered/sealed. Any known cover/sealing system is anticipated and the disclosed system is in no way limited to the cover/sealing system shown. Additionally, it is anticipated that the cover/seal 1110 be placed over the sub-sheets 10A/10B/10C before or after cutting (see FIG. 4).

Referring to FIG. 6, a perspective view of a sealed card 10B from the compartment side is shown. In this example, clear compartments 1020A are shown, though any opacity is anticipated. In this example, each compartment 1020A contains two different pills 1001/1003 and all compartments 1020A contain the same types of pills 1001/1003. In other embodiments, different compartments 1020A contain different quantities and/or types of pills as long as there is at least one compartment 1020A that contains at least two different pills 1001/1003. For example, in one example, all compartments 1020A contain a first type of pill 1001 and only one or several compartments 1020A also contain a second type of pill 1003. In another example, all compartments 1020A contain both types of pill 1001/1003 and a subset of the compartments 1020A also contains multiples of one of the pills 1001/1003 or also contains a third type of pill (not shown). It is fully anticipated that, in some embodiments, one or more of the compartments 1020A are left empty.

In some embodiments, the compartments 1020A are formed in such a way that they are in the shape of a pocket or balloon and the compartments 1020A are separable from the blister pack 10B and sealed until they are broken open or burst to access the pills 1001/1003.

Equivalent elements can be substituted for the ones set forth above such that they perform in substantially the same manner in substantially the same way for achieving substantially the same result.

It is believed that the system and method as described and many of its attendant advantages will be understood by the foregoing description. It is also believed that it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the components thereof without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention or without sacrificing all of its material advantages. The form herein before described being merely exemplary and explanatory embodiment thereof. It is the intention of the following claims to encompass and include such changes. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of forming and filling blister packs, the method comprising: receiving a substantially sheet of material; forming a plurality of compartments in the sheet of material; filling at least one of the compartments with at least two pills, the at least two pills comprising a first type of pill and a second type of pills; and sealing the blister pack.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of forming includes positioning a section of the sheet of material over a first side of a mold, the mold having openings, and vacuuming from a distal second side of the mold, thereby drawing portions of the sheet of material into the openings and forming the compartments in the sheet of material.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of forming further includes the step of heating the sheet of material before the step of vacuuming.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of forming includes positioning a section of the sheet of material over a first side of a mold, the mold having openings, and pressing a stamp onto the mold, the stamp having protrusions that align with the openings, thereby forming the compartments in the sheet of material.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of forming further includes the step of heating the sheet of material before the step pressing.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of filling comprises moving each of a plurality of canisters in an X direction and/or Y direction to position the each canister over one of the compartments and dropping at least one pill from the canister into the one of the compartments.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of filling comprises moving the compartments in an X direction and/or Y direction to position one of the compartments beneath one of the canisters and dropping at least one pill from the one of the canisters into the one of the compartments.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of sealing the compartments after the step of filling.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of cutting the sheet of material after the step of filling.
 10. A form and fill machine comprising: means for forming a plurality of compartments in a sheet of material; means for filling at least one of the compartments with a plurality of pills, the plurality of pills including at least two types of pills; means for sealing the compartments; means for dividing the sheet of materials into individual blister packs.
 11. The form and fill machine of claim 10, wherein the means for forming comprises a mold, the mold having openings, whereas the sheet of material is positioned over the mold and a vacuum is drawn from under the mold, thereby forming the compartments within the openings.
 12. The form and fill machine of claim 11, wherein the means for forming further comprises a heater, whereas the heater heats the sheet of material before the vacuum is drawn from under the mold.
 13. The form and fill machine of claim 10, wherein the means for forming comprises a mold, the mold having openings, whereas the sheet of material is positioned over the mold and a stamp having protrusions that align with the openings is forced onto the mold, thereby forming the compartments within the openings.
 14. The form and fill machine of claim 13, wherein the means for forming further comprises a heater, whereas the heater heats the sheet of material before the stamp is forced down onto the mold.
 15. The form and fill machine of claim 10, wherein the means for filling comprises a plurality of canisters and at least a first canister of the canisters contains a first pill type and at least a second canister of the canisters contains a second pill type, wherein the first pill type is different from the second pill type.
 16. The form and fill machine of claim 10, wherein the means for sealing comprises affixing a label over the compartments.
 17. The form and fill machine of claim 10, wherein the means for dividing comprises a cutting device.
 18. A form and fill machine comprising: a mold for forming a plurality of compartments in a sheet of material, the mold having openings, whereas the sheet of material is positioned over the mold and a vacuum is drawn from under the mold, thereby forming the compartments in the sheet of material at the openings; a plurality of canisters, at least a first canister of the canisters contains a first pill type and at least a second canister of the canisters contains a second pill type, wherein the first pill type is different from the second pill type; a drive mechanism, the drive mechanism selectively positions the first canister of the plurality of canisters over a selected compartment of the compartments and drops a selected quantity of the first type of pill into the selected compartment, and the drive mechanism selectively positions the second canister of the plurality of canisters over the selected compartment and drops a selected quantity of the second type of pill into the selected compartment; a sealing mechanism, the sealing mechanism seals the compartments after the compartments are filled; a cutting mechanism, the cutting mechanism divides the sheet of material with compartments into blister packs.
 19. The form and fill machine of claim 18, wherein the mold further comprises a heating element to heat the sheet of material before the vacuum is drawn.
 20. The form and fill machine of claim 18, wherein the drive mechanism moves a selected canister of the canisters in an X direction and/or in a Y direction. 